London’s First 24-Hour Entertainment News Channel to Launch

The project was created and backed by Evgeny Lebedev, owner of the Independent and Evening Standard newspapers.

LONDON ON AIR: London’s first 24-hour news and entertainment channel will launch later today, a project created and backed by Evgeny Lebedev, owner of the Independent and Evening Standard newspapers. The channel will cover areas including London news, weather, travel and has acquired TV shows including the comedy series Twenty Twelve Misfits, and Peep Show and the documentary series Drag Queens of London.

“Cities like New York and Toronto have dedicated TV channels — many cities do. It is crazy that London hasn’t before now,” said editorial director Stefano Hatfield. “There are so many stories in the capital and broadcasters like ITV and the BBC just don’t have the time to do them all properly.”

The channel will be broadcast out of two studios in Kensington office, and will be available on Freeview channel 8, Sky channel 117, and Virgin media channel 159. Lebedev plans to invest 15 million pounds, or $25 million, a year with the goal that it will be profitable in three years with revenues from TV ads across the three channels.

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